6 Best Sales Management Software for 2022
This article is part of a larger series on Sales Management.
Sales management software lets sales managers, executives, and business owners streamline many tasks necessary in their sales operation. These include things like goal-setting, individual or team performance management, sales plan execution, team motivation, pipeline monitoring, and resource distribution. We evaluated dozens of software for sales management and identified the top six options for your business:
- amoCRM: Best overall for businesses looking to optimize their sales operation
- Freshsales: Excellent option for small businesses looking for a free customer relationship management (CRM) platform
- Zoho CRM: Great choice for sales managers looking for robust system customization
- Salesmate: Solid pick for sales managers looking for low-cost and comprehensive reporting features
- Insightly: Good choice for businesses that manage multiple projects
- Pipeliner: Best option for enterprise-level businesses managing large sales teams
Provider | Free Plan | Starting Price for Paid Plans* | Free Trial for Paid Plans | Key Sales Management Features | Customer Support |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Limited to viewing privileges and team messaging | $15 per user, per month | 14 days |
| Available through live chat, phone, email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp Monday through Friday, 12 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific Time | |
Unlimited users with basic CRM features | $15 per user, per month | 21 days |
| 24/5 phone, live chat, and email support plus knowledge base with how-to guides and best practices | |
Up to 3 users | $14 per user, per month | 15 days |
| Self-help guides, community forum, training videos and webinars, tier-based customer support via email (24/7), phone and live chat (24/5) | |
✕ | $12 per user, per month | 15 days |
| 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support | |
Up to 2 users | $29 per user, per month | 14 days |
| Help center, community forums, webinars, e-books, blogs, and email and phone support from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Time | |
N/A | $65 per user, per month | 14 days |
| Help guides, tutorials, supplement on-site training services, and automation consulting as well as phone and email support | |
*Based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for at slightly higher rates.
amoCRM: Best Overall Sales Management Software
What We Like
- Relatively inexpensive with a majority of features available on Base and Advanced plans
- System is easy to set up and navigate with minimal interface buttons
- Unique sales management tools
What's Missing
- Free plan limited mostly to just viewing data and using messaging modules
- Lead scoring only available on Enterprise plan
- Minimal reporting customization options
amoCRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free plan: Free for viewing rights, internal messaging, and messaging leads
- Base plan: $15 per user, per month
- Advanced plan: $25 per user, per month
- Enterprise plan: $45 per user, per month
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
A relatively inexpensive option, amoCRM for sales management is well-known for its messaging capabilities for contacting leads through Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and SMS text channels. Users find the interface easy to navigate with the minimal use of buttons and tabs. Additionally, integrating with its messaging applications is a breeze as well as operating those particular functions.
Sales managers have access to many of the reporting features available for viewing sales activity of individuals and teams, as well as narrowing in on calls and goal progress. There’s also the ability to view real-time data on sales pipeline efficiency and which parts of the process need improvements through coaching or other sales resources—helping optimize your sales operation.
One issue with this product is the report customization limitations that contain minimal report layouts, designs, and templates. For easy-to-use tools with limitless options to create dashboards and reports, we recommend Insightly or Zoho CRM as robust alternatives.
amoCRM Plan Summary
Base Plan | Advanced Plan | Enterprise Plan | |
---|---|---|---|
Contact & Lead Management | Up to 12,500 contacts and 2,500 leads | Up to 25,000 contacts and 5,000 leads | Up to 50,000 contacts and 10,000 leads |
Custom Fields | Up to 100 | Up to 200 | Up to 400 |
Pipeline Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Email, SMS & Online Chat Integrations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Activity Reporting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Managing User & Group Permissions | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Sales Process Bottleneck Analysis | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Creating Branches & Teams | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
KPI & Sales Plan Management | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Call Analysis | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Sales Forecasting | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Lead Scoring | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ |
amoCRM Key Features
- KPI tracking: Real-time data on key performance indicators for individuals and teams, such as pipeline stage conversion rates, total leads in the pipeline, and average time a lead is in each stage
- Sales process bottleneck analysis: Evaluation tools to see which parts of the sales process are optimal compared to which ones need performance boosts
- Sales activity reporting: Full reports of individual and team activity and events such as calls placed, leads connected with, and specific messages and interactions that have taken place for each user
- Call reporting: In-depth monitoring of calling activity that records sales calls, tracks their duration, monitors call success, and which leads and sales reps were included
- Goal and sales plan management: Ability to set sales goals for your organization, team, and individuals and provide insights on win-loss analytics and funnel conversions for strategizing your plan
Freshsales: Best Free CRM Option
What We Like
- Free plan unlimited users
- Built-in telephonic capabilities, including on the free plan
- Robust process automation capabilities, including auto-lead assignment, chatbots for customer conversions, and record updating
What's Missing
- Plans get expensive in Pro and Enterprise plans
- Extra cost is required for sending pricing, quotes, or invoicing
- Reporting features are not available on Free plan and advanced metrics reporting requires Enterprise plan
Freshsales Pricing at a Glance*
- Free plan: Unlimited users for basic CRM features
- Growth: $15 per user, per month
- Pro: $39 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
- Free trial: 21 days
Add-ons
- Configure, Price, Quote: $19 per user, per month for quote document templates, invoicing synced to deals, and document activity tracking
- Additional Bot Sessions: $75 for 1,000 bot sessions per month for automated customer or lead support
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
Freshsales is a scalable CRM option because its plans range from free, basic CRM functionality to advanced features on an Enterprise-level plan depending on your business needs. Additionally, this platform is sales-focused with a built-in telephone, task and appointment management tools, and lead management capabilities, which include auto-profile enrichment.
Sales managers get plenty of customization options on data fields, modules, and sales activities that fit their unique process. There’s also the ability to divide and manage sales teams based on product specialties, geographic regions, and other relevant team-based categories they see fit. The Freddy AI function lets managers gain advanced insights on their deals and forecasts, and there are plenty of automation tools to streamline your operation.
However, the advanced reporting features, something useful for a sales manager to track deals won, emails delivered, and pipeline conversion rates, are not available outside of the more expensive Enterprise plan. Users looking for solid reporting tools at a lower cost should consider amoCRM or Salesmate—both of which offer activity and pipeline reporting on their starting paid plans.
Freshsales Plan Summary
Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lead, Contact, Deal & Account Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Activity Timelines with Tasks, Appointments & Notes | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Built-in Telephone | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Visual Pipelines | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Territory Management | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Sales Teams | ✕ | ✕ | Up to 50 | Up to 100 |
Auto-assignment of Contacts, Accounts & Deals | ✕ | ✕ | 50 per module | 100 per module |
Sales Goals | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Sales Forecasting | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ |
Freddy AI Forecasting Insights | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ |
Advanced Metrics Reporting | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ |
Freshsales Key Features
- Sales goal management: Ability to set and track sales goals for teams and individuals
- Sales forecasting: Real-time estimates and insights for projected sales revenue based on data stored in the CRM system
- Territory and team management: Capabilities for dividing sales reps into teams and managing those teams based on specialties or territories
- Lead assignment: Manual or automated option to assign and route leads to sales reps in bulk or individually based on preset criteria
Want to see why Freshsales is popular and our pick for one of the top CRMs for small businesses? Check out our in-depth Freshsales review for detailed information on pricing, features, and what real users are saying about the product.
Zoho CRM: Best for System Customization
What We Like
- Cost-friendly and free plan for up to 3 users
- Limitless system customization for modules, data fields, pipelines, workflows, etc.
- Robust features such as workflow automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and marketing tools
What's Missing
- Clunky interface, can be difficult to navigate
- Limits free plan access to 3 users
- Users report constant system glitches and slow load times
Zoho CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 3 users
- Standard: $14 per user, per month
- Professional: $23 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
- Ultimate: $52 per user, per month
- Free trial: 30 days
Add-ons and Native Software
- Bigin: Free or $7 per user, per month
- Zoho CRM Plus: $57 per user, per month
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost,
With built-in tools and native software integrations, Zoho CRM is truly a full business management system. While there are low-cost subscription plans and a free option, users can take advantage of many advanced features with AI functionality and automation capabilities if they choose Enterprise or Ultimate plans.
Additionally, there’s a custom AI predictive feature that lets users predict nearly any quantifiable data point they want to see. The customization capabilities, however, are what stand out the most compared to the other products on this list. Managers and business owners can do things like design their own unique modules, data fields, reports, pipelines, lists, workflows, assignment rules, links, and buttons.
Usability is the main flaw for this platform due to its clunky interface and glitchy system. For notoriously easy-to-use platforms with similar pricing, we recommend Freshsales or amoCRM.
Zoho CRM Plan Summary
Free | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | Ultimate | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lead, Account & Contact Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Standard Reports | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Team Direct Messaging | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Custom Reports | ✕ | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
KPI Analytics | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Multipipeline Management | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Sales Forecasting | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Sales Funnel Analytics | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Motivator | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Assignment Rules | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Territory Management | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | 150 territories | 250 territories |
Zia AI Prediction Builder | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | 2 per model, per organization | 2 per model, per organization |
Zia Anomaly Analytics | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Workflow Reports | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Zoho CRM Key Features
- Workflow reports: Real-time reporting on process and task automation success as well as workflow usage
- Motivator tool: Gamification features for setting friendly competitions for lead generation, business closed, service tickets fulfilled, or conversions—and rewarding reps for their performance
- AI prediction builder: Advanced customizable predictions on lead conversions, deal-closing success, likelihood of a purchase, and revenue estimates
- Sales funnel analytics: Data reporting and dashboard insights on sales funnel information, such as lead source analysis, conversions rates, and sales rep comparisons
Read our Zoho CRM review to explore additional information on the features, plans, usability, and integrations of this platform.
Salesmate: Best for Low-cost Reporting Features
What We Like
- Relatively inexpensive for all plans
- Built-in voice and text with click-to-call features
- Most reporting and analytics tools are available on Starter and Growth plans
What's Missing
- No free-forever plan
- Limited integration capabilities
- Basic CRM tools such as task and nurturing automation as well as messaging tools require add-ons
Salesmate Pricing at a Glance*
- Starter: $12 per user, per month
- Growth: $24 per user, per month
- Boost: $40 per user, per month
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- Free trial: 15 days
Add-ons
- Automation Journeys: $30 to $1,000+ for 1,000 to 100,000 contacts to be auto-nurtured
- Messenger: $12 per user, per month
- Dedicated IP Address: $150 per month
- Additional Call Credits: Starting at $10
- Extra Workflows: $10 per month for 10 workflows
- Extra Sequences: $10 per month for 10 email sequences
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
Despite not having a free plan, Salesmate is inexpensive and most features are included on the Starter or Growth plans. In addition to built-in telephonic tools, this product offers many email tools to automate campaigns and design templates so sales reps can communicate with leads using a wide range of channels.
The most notable attribute of Salesmate isn’t just the robust reporting and analytics features, but the fact that just about all of them are available on the Starter plan. Furthermore, even the reporting modules for email analytics, email template usage reports, goal tracking, and inventory management are still available on the next-tiered Growth plan. After that, the only sales management feature on the Boost plan is for creating and managing teams.
A free-forever plan is extremely valuable to a small business as it gives them a risk-free chance to try out the features and see if the sales management software is a good fit for them. Unfortunately, Salesmate does not have a free plan aside from the 15-day free trial. Freshsales is an ideal alternative for those prioritizing a free option.
Salesmate Plan Summary
Starter | Growth | Boost | Enterprise | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Contact, Deal & Company Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Multipipeline Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Activity Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Deal Winning Probabilities | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Standard Reporting & Dashboard | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Activity, Deal & Pipeline Insights | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Call Log Reports | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Workflow Management | Up to 10 workflows | Up to 25 workflows | Up to 50 workflows | Up to 100 workflows |
Product/Service Management | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Goal Management | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Custom Reporting & Dashboards | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Email & Template Usage Analytics | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Teams Management | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Salesmate Key Features
- Product and service management features: Custom products and services with inventory management, pricing catalogs, associated products and services, product and service reports, and pricing adjustments for deals
- Smart emails: Premade templates, conversation tracking, team inbox, email sequence automation, and advanced insights on email campaign success and template usage
- Activity insights: Analytics and reporting on sales activity such as calls, travel, demo meetings, and other tasks for teams and individuals
- Call log reports: Call recordings, duration, logs, and call activity reporting features
Insightly: Best for Project-based Businesses
What We Like
- Built-in project management features
- User-friendly interface with features that are easy to operate, including drag-and-drop report creation
- Integrates with over 250 popular small business applications, such as Outlook, Google Workspace, and QuickBooks
What's Missing
- Free plan limited to 2 users
- Starting plans are relatively more expensive
- Workflow automation requires Professional plan
Insightly Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 2 users
- Plus: $29 per user, per month
- Professional: $40 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $99 per user, per month
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
Ease of use and plenty of integration options are some of the key attributes of Insightly. There is also a free plan that includes basic contact and sales management as well as the ability to design, organize, and assign projects. Additionally, associated tasks can be created and tracked within projects and an opportunity can be directly converted into a project.
In addition to project management features, sales managers have the ability to create aesthetically pleasing sales dashboards with insights, analytics, and reports on relevant data and key performance indicator (KPI) metrics of their choosing. There’s also report scheduling where they can preset when a report is generated and have it automatically emailed to the team members of their choice.
Providing automation capabilities to your sales team is a vital resource sales managers can offer to automate mundane tasks and streamline the operation. Since Insightly can only do workflow automation on the expensive Professional plan, we recommend Zoho CRM as an alternative that offers this feature for free.
Insightly Plan Summary
Free | Plus | Professional | Enterprise | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Contact, Opportunity & Project Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Task & Event Management | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Sales Team Assignment | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Business Intelligence Dashboards | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Report Scheduling | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Roles, Permissions & Profiles | ✕ | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Custom Insights Cards | ✕ | ✕ | 100 | Unlimited |
Call Analysis & Reporting | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Workflow Automation | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Products, Price Books & Quotes | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ |
Insightly Key Features
- Integrated project management: Project, milestones, and task organization with calendar sync, configurable processes, and ability to convert opportunities to projects
- Report scheduling: Automatic custom sales reports can be created and emailed to relevant parties on preset schedule
- Sales team assignment: Ability to create teams, assign them to deals, and monitor team performance
- Business intelligence dashboards: Drag-and-drop charts and layouts on over 40 different templates to view data and reports
Learn more about this platform to decide if it’s the best fit for your business by reading our in-depth Insightly review.
Pipeliner: Best for Managing Large Sales Teams
What We Like
- Robust, advanced reporting features
- Many system customization capabilities
- Supplemental services available for onsite training, automation consulting, and module design
What's Missing
- Expensive compared to other products on this list
- Project management tools only available on Enterprise plan
- No live chat customer support option
Pipeliner Pricing at a Glance*
- Starter: $65 per user, per month
- Business: $85 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $115 per user, per month
- Unlimited: $150 per user, per month
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available at a higher cost.
Pipeliner offers businesses built-in sales tools and integration capabilities for managing leads, pipelines, projects, and tasks as well as automating processes and enhancing team collaboration. There is a wide range of methods for obtaining information through multiview dashboards and reporting with insights and analysis on activities, production, and operational efficiency.
While Pipeliner is expensive and has extensive features compared to the other options on this list, those aren’t the only reasons this sales management tool is best for larger sales teams. There are in-depth system customization options for pipelines, data fields, modules, sales activities, reports, dashboards, and automations useful for managing larger and more complex sales operations.
The price of the product is the top deterrent to purchasing this CRM software, as the starting price is over twice as costly as the next-most expensive product in the list. Zoho CRM and Salesmate are excellent alternatives with starting prices below $15 per user, per month.
Pipeliner Plan Summary
Starter | Business | Enterprise | Ultimate | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Internal Messaging | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Lead, Account, Opportunity, Contact & Activity Management With List View | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Multiple KPI Targeting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Custom Dashboards | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Standard & Pivot Table Reports | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Account Matrix View | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Navigator Dashboard | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Visual Account & Contact Org Chart | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Forecasts & Quotas | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Management Insights | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Workflow Automation | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Scheduled Reporting | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Project Management | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ |
Pipeliner Key Features
- Multichart pipeline view: Ability to view the pipeline in real time on multiple layouts, including compact, list, map, bubble chart, calendar, and task board view
- Management insights: High-level performance KPI analysis and CRM data focusing on leads, opportunities, and sales activities
- Forecast and quotas features: Options for making sales revenue estimates and easily creating and distributing team sales quotas among individuals
- Navigator dashboard: Full system view of CRM account, items that require attention, notifications, and current tasks
How We Evaluated the Best Sales Management Software
To determine the best sales management systems for small businesses, we evaluated the software in terms of sales management features. For instance, capabilities like sales forecasting, goal management, and sales gamification are extremely useful to someone in a sales management position. We also evaluated general product characteristics such as price, ease of use, and customer support.
Overall, we found amoCRM to be the best sales management software for small businesses. It offers cost-friendly subscription options, a high product usability rating, and plenty of options for contacting customer service. Additionally, its CRM features relevant to a sales manager include call, activity, and KPI reporting along with forecasting, goal-setting tools, and analysis for ways to make a sales operation and process more efficient.
The tabs below offer insight into our evaluation process:
40% of Overall Score
Cost is typically among the most important criteria for any business, so it was the most heavily weighted when reviewing the top software for sales management positions. Pricing took into account free plan availability, scalable pricing options, and having options to pay monthly or save by paying annually.
20% of Overall Score
We looked at overall features we feel are necessities, such as CRM integration options, analytics tools, and a mobile app. We also evaluated features specific to sales management, like performance tracking, sales forecasting, goal-setting, and pipeline management. A solid sales management software will also have plenty of customizable reporting capabilities.
15% of Overall Score
The solutions were also evaluated on platform usability. This was analyzed in terms of the expertise needed to set up an account, the ease of integrating with native or third-party applications, and the skill required to use the sales management features. We also reviewed the overall intuitiveness of navigating the system’s interface.
15% of Overall Score
Extensive support and service help prevent poor user experiences and outcomes users may encounter while using any of these CRM software platforms. Help and support were evaluated in terms of customer service hours and the availability of support via phone, live chat, and email.
10% of Overall Score
In addition to firsthand experience with these software systems, we evaluated what users say about each product. These criteria consider how customers feel, based on their reviews, to gain insight on platform popularity, ease of use, and overall value for the price.